"Uniqlo, Zara owners face new Paris lawsuit over Uyghur forced labour" 19 June 2023

Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing, Zara owner Inditex and Skechers are among the retailers facing fresh allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang and other parts of China in a new lawsuit filed by The European Uyghur Institute in Paris.

The institute's president, Dilnur Reyhan, accuses multinationals that operate in Xinjiang of being "involved in the surveillance, the management and the construction of camps, as well as the overall monitoring of the Uyghur region." She blamed the retailers for turning a blind eye to human rights abuses and of benefiting from forced labour.

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The institute, together with several other nongovernmental organizations, recently filed a new complaint at the Tribunal Court of Paris, the country's largest judicial court, after the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecution Office dropped a two-year inquiry into those companies over allegations of concealment of crimes against humanity, genocide, forced labour and human trafficking in Xinjiang.

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The latest lawsuit included as evidence video recordings that the Uyghur institute said it obtained from Uyghur workers in China, which showed Skechers shoes being made. Nikkei Asia has seen some of the videos but cannot vouch for their veracity.

The complaint document, which Nikkei Asia had access to, contains a number of reports including by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in the U.S., academic research and open-source investigations by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

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A Fast Retailing spokesperson told Nikkei Asia that none of the companies' manufacturing process was in Xinjiang. Uniqlo has "a zero-tolerance policy toward any human rights violation," said the spokesperson. Although the group had not been contacted by French authorities by early June, the spokesperson said Fast Retailing would "cooperate fully with the investigation to reaffirm there is no forced labour" in its supply chain.

Skechers said it would not comment on any pending litigation, but a spokesperson pointed to the company's code of conduct for suppliers that requires companies to certify that they do not employ forced labour. Skechers also said that it conducts strict internal audits of its Chinese suppliers.

Inditex said it had "rigorous traceability controls to ensure the provenance of its products" and stressed its "zero-tolerance policy toward any kind of forced labour."

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"We have seen a vertiginous drop in products imported into the United States from China, but an increase in Europe, which claims to be the bastion of human rights," said Reyhan. The institute is hoping to persuade the European Parliament to adopt a tougher stance on goods made with forced labour.